The worst Interior Secretary since James Watt is set to step down.
Gale Norton is expected to announce her resignation today after serving more than five years as secretary of the Interior pursuing an expansively pro-development agenda in the West, sources said.
….Her background working for logging and mining interests made her one of Bush’s most controversial cabinet nominees.
…Under her watch, the department stripped protection from areas previously managed as wilderness, opened up forests to increased logging, reopened Yellowstone to snowmobiles and pressed federal land managers to speed up drilling for gas on public lands.
Her resignation is probably related to her close relationship with Jack Abramoff, through the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (an Orwellian name if there ever was one). But, the most important thing, from the Republican’s perspective, is that she raped the environment with discretion:
In the National Journal Political Insider’s Poll last year, she was voted the second-most underrated Bush cabinet secretary by Republican operatives who credited her with pursuing Bush’s
anti-environmentalpro-development agenda with a minimum of bad publicity.
Good riddance, but I don’t really expect her replacement to be any better.
